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Monday, October 3, 2011

MY DAY

I've just been reading this post about a day in the life of Sue from The Quince Tree and I thought I would have a go at documenting my day.

So here it is. How I spent Monday.

Dragged myself out of bed around 7:15.
I make a habit of never getting up before 7 o'clock now that I'm retired unless I really have to. I like to stay up late ( midnight-ish) so I get my necessary sleep that way ! Make the bed straight away, get dressed.

Rush out to garage to let dogs outside to go to the toilet ( Have to lock them in as the old Border Collie has slight dementia and likes to sleep under my bedroom window in all weather and I think it's too cold for him to be doing that at the moment ( He gets all wet with dew !!)

Feed dogs.

Turn on breakfast TV and make myself breakfast ( toast with ham and tomato, kiwi fruit and strawberries, BIG cup of tea ). Tony has cereal.

Give dogs arthritis medication - both old .

Eat breakfast while reading blogs ( drop crumbs on my desk and the floor) keeping my cup of tea on the far corner of my desk ( don't want to spill it on my computer- done that before - not good for computer !!!)
Still there at 9:00 when Tony comes out dressed to work in the garden (mowing lawns which are beginning to go brown through lack of rain ).

Put a load of washing on.

Begin my job for the day which is cleaning the house.
Kitchen comes first. I love cleaning kitchens because they look terrific when they're clean ( and it's pretty easy work !)
Move on to dusting the lounge, dining and TV rooms - Lick and a promise!
Bathrooms next - we have two but only guests use one so it is easy. Try out new cleaner on the clear glass shower screen - great success, it comes up sparkling with not too much effort.
(Tony finishes mowing and goes off to part-time work )
Now the floors - mainly tiles with carpet in the bedrooms. This is the bit I dislike most.
Vacuum...............
then wash floors - including bathrooms and toilet - lots of area . This is another bit I dislike !!!

11:30 All done and house looks spic and clean. Cup of tea.

Hang washing on the line

Lunch - Toasted muffin with ham, tomato and cheese, cup of coffee.

Change out of cleaning clothes into something mildly presentable.

Bring washing in as rain is threatening. All dry.

2:00 Doorbell rings. Two friends ( retired teachers like me ) arrive to help me judge children's competitions for CWA. (Raindrops begin to sprinkle)
Chart about East Timor for 8 and 9 year olds
Computer generated booklet about East Timor for 11 and 12 year olds.

Takes us a while to debate and compare and mark Criteria Sheets. Glad I'm not doing this any more. Once a year is enough !!

Judge adult competition - Greeting card. Pretty quick and simple.

Good company, lots of laughs ( thunder grumbles outside )

Cup of tea and biscuit reward for all that hard work. More chat. Plan another get together and check upcoming social activities.

4:45pm Friends leave. More thunder

5ish Downpour begins with more thunder and lightning, then a sprinkle of small hail.
Great rain (15mL). Just what the garden and lawn needs.

6:00 Change of plan for tea - was going to be a BBQ but suddenly cold ( from hail I expect ) and too wet anyway. Tony watches his favourite program (Bargain Hunt !!!) while I prepare tea. Chicken ( grilled like on BBQ ) and lots of stirfried vegies, pumpkin and potatoes in their jackets. Yoghurt for dessert.
Eat at 7:00. All cleared away by 8:00 ( watching kid's Masterchef but a bit too hard to stomach - everything perfect and precocious kids -yuk!!)
Nothing worth watching on TV. Tony fools around with his Android phone, I fool around with my laptop reading blogs, Facebook, researching holidays in France ( dreaming !!) . Show Tony some photos of Merton in France to get him enthused - both sitting in our recliner chairs.
Dogs asleep on their beds.
11-ish Bedtime . Read for a while.( very good book The Book Thief )

8 comments:

Sounds a full and varied day you have there Helen. I think if I documented my day I'd choose last Sunday - Got up, dressed, made packed lunch and set off for a walk. Returned home and put chicken in oven for dinner and had a shower, finished off cooking meal, ate dinner had a game of Rumikub to exercise our brains after all that physical and went to bed 9.30 ish! Most other days would be filled with faffing about achieving not a lot!!

Two things really impressed me: you can clean all that in just over 2 hours! It would take me 2 days. I HATE cleaning. Nice when it's done but I HATE the doing.Your washing dried while you were having lunch! On a very good day with hot sun and wind, mine might dry in a whole day.(Well, say 11-ish until about 5-ish).You like ham, don't you?!A very productive day, Helsie, with plenty of relaxation mixed in. Well done.

I like a clean house. Before I got married that wasn't a problem. I'd clean every Friday night and the house stayed that way all week. Not so, after the wedding. Even though it was MY income that primarily supported the family, I tried for the first 10 years to also be what I perceived a good wife would be.

Finally I decided that wasn't for me, I really resented other people assuming that cooking and cleaning were solely my job. I was a manager over 30 people at work and a household drudge at home. I taught the son to cook and do his own cleaning. The husband wasn't teachable, alas, so he was encouraged to move to his own place, where he live at peace with his marvellous lifetime collection of junk.

Son (25) is still here, usually with a couple of his friends. They all pick up after themselves, cook their own food, and do their own dishes. When I do clean and cook it's because I want to, and it's fun. Life is good.

I hope everyone gets a chance to have a comfortable retirement. So far it's been a bit boring for me (3 months into it), I haven't settled into a routine that takes the place of the job. Well, except for reading blogs in the morning with my cup of coffee. Thanks, folks, for writing them.

When cleaning the house with your feather duster do you wear a French maid's outfit by any chance? And if you do go to France, why not stay a while at my brother's gites near the Pyrenees? See the link in my bloglist - Pyreneen Vue. Very peaceful and unspoilt area.